I can’t exactly replicate what you found as I am a Vivaldi user. However I too found the addition of a fancy power cord to the clock made a surprising difference to the resulting sound of the system. NB: I too was a naysayer about fancy power cables in general until I tried one that did what it claimed. Was it more important than its effect on the DAC? Having tried one at a time the improvements ( if one wishes to categorise them as such) were not in identical areas of the sound so I cannot easily place them in order of significance.
All systems are different as are our individual needs and expectations. So what you found is what you found and that is the way to go if you have to settle on one “best” cord. Had you found that the DAC seemed the more important recipient of it I would also have agreed with your finding .
However one of the engineers from dCS ( I think it was James) remarked in a response to a posting last year that theoretically a clock would benefit more from a better power cable as it could be more vulnerable to parasitic noise than a DAC.
Having said that and bearing in mind the great ( excessive?) cost associated with certain aftermarket cords I completely agree with Greg’s view on the actual components taking precedence in expenditure. However I appreciate that may not be immediately relevant to you having only recently bought your Rossini pair. In any case whatever you buy now will probably be just as suitable for use with any future component upgrade.
Pete, thanks for that reminder. I shall have to at least give that possibility a go, perhaps after the new reference clock has been run in for a while.
P.S. Just for clarification, please note that I did not express skepticism about the effect that power cables can have. I once did, but that was quite literally decades ago. It’s just been my experience that high quality power for the entire system reduces the magnitude of the effect of an individual cable, and properly engineered AC cables, optimized for the competing design goals of power supply, are more likely to deliver that power without imparting SQ changes. I understand that some SQ changes might be deemed desirable by some. My goal is to remove SQ changes and only hear what the component can do untethered so to speak from the cables connected to it; same with analogue ICs. And in that realm, quality cables can make quite the difference. I do, however, remain very skeptical of the claims made for many “audiophile” digital cables; and I’ve tried quite a few, enough to conclude that the process was only a distraction from enjoyment of the music. Cheers!
I certainly found the change of cords greater with the clock than anticipated. But it wasn’t me that came up with the potential reason wny. You know I am not that bright .
Thank you for all the replies. It was not my intention to start an aftermarket power cord debate which I know can be a hot topic.
In summary, now that I’ve had more time to play with aftermarket power cords for my relatively new Rossini DAC + Clock, I’ve found that, at least in my system, that the best power cord be placed on the clock for the best sound, but that is just my finding and confirmed by my wife’s great ears.
Indeed, both the clock and DAC should be both powered by the best, but not necessarily the most expensive power cords available on hand. That being said, good, clean power to one’s system is the first essential building block for a recipe for a good sounding system. As one reviewer said many years ago, “One cannot make good lemonade from bad water.” Just my 2 cents.
Thanks Greg. I guess that I used the phase wrong. From what I’ve seen of the DCS forums so far, everyone treats each other with mutual respect which I highly appreciate. Bob
Jim. I too am impressed with the new Shunyata offerings. I was using
Sigma v1 power cords with some of my gear and my Sigma v2 is better performer That being said, the Omega is on a whole other level.
BTW, my local B&M dealer where I bought my DCS gear is also a Transparent dealer and often uses Transparent Speaker and interconnects in their best listening rooms. The Vivaldi stack is usually used in their best listening rooms and I imagine that the Vivaldi might also be driven by Transparent too, but I’ve never peeked back there.
Bob. I have swapped moved to the Sigma XC for my Everest and the Sigma v2 NR for my DAC. I took Shumyata’s suggestion and placed Delta NR v2 for the upsampler and moved a Alpha v1 NR for the clock. I drew a arbitrary line in the sand at Sigma and passed on Omega.
I am very happy with Transparent Opus on my amps and speakers.
I have a Vivaldi stack and have found from numerous testings that a light high quality power cable makes a huge difference. Expensive “heavy” ones are a no no. I have settled on Crystal power cables
@NordicBob Congrats on your recent Rossini purchase and welcome to the forum. You’re absolutely correct noting that the DCS forum has respectful members. It’s such a pleasure to ask questions and share our thoughts on this forum.
One thing you might want to consider is to add a fiber optic segment to reduce any EMI noise that can be carried across copper Ethernet cables. I recently did this and noticed a slight improvement in clarity and it only cost $170.
Hello All,
I am a true newbie here. I am a proud Bartok owner of a few months. This forum has been invaluable in terms the information available on dCS products and the various tweaks and nuances.
I wanted to chime in on cables discussion, especially the power cord discussion. Like some of you, I was inherently skeptical about the value of power cables. Such concerns were laid to rest when I started trying “high end” power cables. My best power cable, for the dCS Bartok, is the Stealth Audio V16, UNI - the " Digital" version. I tried the Shunyata Sigma NR V1, then the V2, and a few Cardas power cables. I kept going back to the Stealth. It was as though my mind/logical brain was fighting with my ears- in the end my ears won; I sold the Shunyata cables on Audiogon ( they were excellent though, they just didn’t win the race for me).
I would love to understand how “Ethernet” can be “converted” to fiber - or whether I am even getting that right. Essentially the question is how “purified” can we make the signal ( i.e. song from say Tidal Hi Fi) ?
Thank you all for letting me share.
Best
Ritwick
Here is a link to an article by on how to do it by one of the first people I knew who did it:
I have to say that I have no stance upon whether or not it is a good idea. I am merely trying to be helpful given your question. There are some highly qualified network engineers here who will no doubt say that it makes no difference whether the data is carried by copper, fibre or (maybe) carrier pigeon it is all the same as the data at one end of the network is the same as the data that arrives at the other. Anticipate such comments.
About that fiber, I use it whenever possible in my home network, though strictly on account of the cool factor… and also to free up regular RJ45 ports on my switches.
I like how Lumin X-1 has SFP in addition to RJ45 so the user is free to choose their transport media. Given a choice, I’d probably try fiber, with the big caveat that fiber connects into a media adapter. That adapter is chock-full of electronic components, and will be electrically coupled with the host device. In plain English, I’d have to trust that the benefits of going with a fiber run outweigh any potential RF interference generated right inside the unit by the media adapter. Granted, its enclosure is shielded and should be bonded to ground, but still.
In the case of dCS, since it lacks an SFP port, you have to ingest Ethernet via copper. Presumably an external media converter will give you full electric isolation from the upstream, so in theory, for those paranoid about carried line noise (as opposed to actual stream data alteration which is impossible by design) it should offer an additional layer of peace of mind by going fiber to just outside the dCS and then converting to a short copper patch cable.
Edit: fiber cables are fragile. They, and their connectors, don’t take a beating like copper cables can.
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